Gerrit Nijssen will present a program, illustrated by slides, about the history and development of the Waltham Crystal Plate watches. William R. Wills the head of the jewel department at Waltham initially produced one of these watches more as an experiment. The Waltham management liked them and used some of these movements to demonstrate the technical capabilities of Waltham Watch Co. at exhibitions. Less than 100 of these watches were ever made.
About the speaker: Gerrit Nijssen was born and raised in Indonesia and completed his higher education in Holland. In the late sixties he needed a diversion from his engineering management duties and became interested in clocks and high grade and complicated pocket watches, cameras, and photography. Over the years he has written various articles for the NAWCC and in 1978 he published a book on F.A. Lange and Glashutte.